Local teens spread their wings to become Eagle Scouts

A trio of Boy Scouts from Middletown’s Troop 125 helped improve their communities on their way to earning the rank of Eagle Scout this summer.

By Scott Gossscott.goss@doverpost.comTwitter: @middletownscott

A trio of Boy Scouts from Middletown’s Troop 125 helped improve their communities on their way to earning the rank of Eagle Scout this summer.

Appoquinimink High School junior Jordan Adams, Middletown High School junior Christopher Gillie, and Dominic DelRosso, a former student at the Charter School of Wilmington who recently moved to Germany, all attained the Boy Scouts’ highest rank during a special ceremony at St. Joseph’s Church last month.

“It’s a relief,” Adams said of his achievement. “On the one hand, it’s amazing it all happened so fast, but it’s also takes a lot of effort and it’s something I’ve been working towards for a long time, so now I’m glad to sort of sit back and be able to help out.”

Gillie said it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that he’s finally attained an honor he’s been working toward since second grade.

“It’s not just a rank,” he said. “It’s an accumulation of all the time you spend going through scouts, working with people and learning leadership skills.”

To receive the prestigious honor, scouts must earn 21 merit badges while progressing through five other ranks from Tenderfoot to Life Scout. They also must take part in a Scoutmaster conference and an interview before a board of review.

Perhaps the most intense requirement is the Eagle project for which each scout must plan, develop and lead an active effort to positively impact a school, community or religious organization.

Gillie, for instance, organized a car wash at WSFS and a restaurant night at Pat’s Pizza to raise more than $1,400, which he used in March to make improvements to the walking path around the Cedar Lane Elementary School campus.

Gillie and a crew of 26 volunteers installed two stretching stations around the path, cleared debris from the walkway, as well as sanded and stained four foot bridges.

“I liked the challenge of taking responsibility for the group,” he said. “Knowing that I had successfully led a group of people to accomplish a worthwhile task was very satisfying.”

DelRosso, meanwhile, built an outdoor pedestal for a statue of St. Joseph at St. Joseph’s Church, a project also funded by a car wash.

“The statue was displayed in the lobby of the parish hall where he had service prior to our new sanctuary,” DelRosso explained in his project description. “The statue was originally meant to be outside, however there was no appropriate place to display it until the new sanctuary was built.”

After the building the pedestal, DelRosso also received the assistance of volunteers to move the 600-pound statue.

Adams’ service project involved the creation of a bird and butterfly garden outside of Genesis HealthCare’s Silver Lake Center in Dover, where his father James, an assistant scoutmaster, serves as head administrator.

Using $1,000 he raised from yard sales and a small loan from his parents that he’s since paid back, Adams organized the planting of trees, shrubs and flowers, as well as the addition of several new bird feeders.

“The garden is outside a wing of the nursing center where the resident suffer from dementia, and it was my hope that the garden would be a comfort to them by giving them something that is both nice and familiar outside their rooms,” he said. “I feel really good about how it turned out, like I gave back to a part of the community that really needed it.”

All three 16-year-olds said they intend to pursue a military career after high school, while remaining active in the Boy Scouts of America.